Concentrating Solar Power for Seawater Desalination

All MENA countries have an outstanding potential for solar energy. Using concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) plants to power seawater desalination either by electricity or in combined generation with process steam to solve the water scarcity problem in MENA is a rather obvious approach. The AQUA-CSP project sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) quantifies the potential of this technology in MENA and the socio-economic and environmental impacts implied by a large scale dissemination in order to provide a reliable data base for decision and policy makers in the water sector and to facilitate the inclusion of this approach in national expansion plans. Some preliminary results of this project are presented here. Growth of population and economy, increasing urbanization and industrialization, and the rather limited natural resources of potable water in MENA are leading to serious deficits of freshwater in many parts of MENA. Modern infrastructure for water distribution, enhanced efficiency of use and better water management are to be established as soon as possible. However, even the change to best practice would leave considerable deficits, which are poorly covered by over-exploiting groundwater resources. Increased use of desalted seawater is therefore unavoidable in order to maintain a reasonable level of water supply. The desalination of seawater based on fossil fuels is neither sustainable nor economically feasible in a long-term perspective, as fuels are increasingly becoming expensive and scarce. Concentrating solar power (CSP) offers a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels for large scale seawater desalination. CSP can help to solve the problem, but market introduction must start immediately in order to achieve the necessary freshwater production rates in time.

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